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If we are to get a handle on the rapidly multiplying spread of coronavirus, we have to know how many cases there are and where they are. Floridians who suspect they’re sick with COVID-19 need to be able to find out whether they are indeed carrying this highly contagious and potentially deadly virus.

But throughout Florida — throughout the United States, generally — it is still far too difficult to obtain a test for this disease, which has been as debilitating for the global economy as it has for most of its human victims.

On Thursday, prominent public-health official Anthony Fauci admitted that the U.S. system “is not geared” to provide widespread access to anyone who thinks they might have the virus.

“The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it? We’re not set up for that,” said Fauci, head of the infectious diseases division at the National Institutes of Health.

“Should we be? Yes, but we’re not.”

To call that revelation sobering would be an understatement. The lack of knowledge from our failure to test large numbers of Americans hampers public health officials. If they can’t identify clusters and isolate the disease, they have a harder time containing it. And it is vital that the virus’ spread be slowed as much as possible so that hospitals aren’t suddenly overwhelmed by waves of cases that outstrip their ability to handle. If the very sick can’t get into ICUs, they’ll likely die.

The information gulf has been worsened by a lack of candor from this state’s public officials. Guidance to the public from Gov. Ron DeSantis and his staff has been sketchy at best. The state has refused to provide localized county-level data on how many were being tested and monitored for the virus.

Thus, Floridians are being given only rough information about those who have succumbed to the disease (“a 72-year-old man from Santa Rosa County; a Lee County woman in her 70s”).

Contrast this with the specific descriptions that Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York provided when “containing” a square-mile area of the suburb of New Rochelle: we know the name of the patient, the fact that his wife and two children are also infected and the synagogue he attended.

Which is a better guide for letting residents decide whether it’s safe to go out to dinner?

Thus, we’re largely guessing. And the phrase “abundance of caution” is getting a workout. Should Daytona Beach have canceled Bike Week (the race was scheduled to be held but without spectators in the Speedway), Gainesville scrub the Gatornationals drag-racing event and West Palm Beach scratch the International Boat Show? (They did.)

Should Grapefruit League Spring Training continue? (On Wednesday, DeSantis said only that limiting crowds for outdoor events should be decided “on a case to case basis” ‒ a day before Major League Baseball suspended spring training and announced a delay of the regular season.)

At a time when many universities are converting to online courses and many companies are telling employees to work from home, should public schools shut down?

It’s hard to say. We haven’t tested enough of the state’s population to know the extent to which the virus has spread.

As of noon Thursday, only 476 tests had been conducted in Florida, a state of 21 million people, according to a running count being kept by COVID Tracking Project, a group of independent researchers, journalists and volunteers who are collecting state-level data around the country.

An airline passenger wearing a mask makes his way through the International Terminal at San Francisco International Airport Saturday, March 7, 2020, in San Francisco. As cases of the coronavirus surge in Italy, Iran, South Korea, the U.S. and elsewhere, many scientists say it's plain that the world is in the grips of a pandemic — a serious global outbreak.(Photo: David J. Phillip, AP)

For the entire nation of 330 million, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday that 11,079 tests had been performed, but COVID Tracking Project could verify just 8,900.

The numbers fall far short of Vice President Mike Pence’s assertion on March 4 that “roughly 1.5 million tests” would be available that week. And they completely contradict President Donald Trump’s assertions that everyone who wants to be tested can be tested ‒ right now.

In South Korea, they’re testing at a rate of 10,000 per day.

It is time, as Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, says, for the federal government to quickly approve test kits and for the large national medical-testing chains like LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics to dramatically scale up testing.

This ramped-up effort should include drive-through testing sites, as South Korea does. It should ensure that the most vulnerable people, such as nursing-home patients and people with underlying conditions, get tested. And for those who need it, the tests must be free.

Everyone who needs a test for this virus should be able to get one. And without delay.

This editorial is a joint collaboration of editorial boards of the USA TODAY Network-Florida.